A Nigerian police official says authorities have arrested 22 Boko Haram extremist leaders and fighters responsible for the mass kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok and more than 50 suicide bombings.

Borno State Police Commissioner Damian Chukwu says the arrests took place between July 4 and 9. Chukwu says police seized the coordinators of suicide bombings in Borno and the coordinator and participants in the Chibok abductions in 2014. He says others also confessed to ambushing security agents and being logistics suppliers.

He also says the suspects are helping with information that could lead to the arrests of other Boko Haram commanders.

Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people during its 9-year insurgency.

Dozens of the Chibok schoolgirls have been freed but more than 100 have never returned.

-Associated Press

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